Cold Turkey
is the third issue of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic comic book series. Written by Andi Watson and illustrated by Joe Bennett, it was originally published on November 25, 1998 by Dark Horse Comics. Synopsis Buffy Summers' horrific holiday season continues as Turkey Day rolls into Sunnydale. The day before begins as hectic as any past Thanksgiving, save for one exception: some strange goings-on around the house have set Buffy's mind a flutter. What happened to the vampire that survived the fateful Halloween massacre? Who's been digging through her family's trash at night? And why do so many people wait until the last minute to go grocery shopping?!"Buffy the Vampire Slayer #3". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved January 5, 2018. Summary After a bad dream, Buffy wakes to see that her Halloween costume has been stolen out of the trash. She asks her mother if she had fished the costume out of the garbage, who denies doing anything, but tells Buffy to trash it because of all the "fake blood". As she is leaving for an overnight buying trip, Joyce assigns her the task of grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. Buffy goes to school and complains to the Scooby Gang about the task during a Home Economics class. Cordelia interrupts with her baked cake while being petty and talking about being richer and prettier than Buffy only to have her cake fall. Later, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Oz are all at a picnic bench outside the school while Buffy complains about having to buy Glace Cherries and Willow offers Oz a piece of the cake she made in Home Economics that apparently isn't very edible. In the library, Buffy and Giles discuss her feeling that one of the four vampires from the Spooky House on Halloween got away. Buffy drools over a replica of a medieval goupillon flail, to which Giles complains she uses a weapon once and then abandons it for a "piece of kindling". Meanwhile, a starving vampire, who may be Selke, eat rats in a graveyard. Buffy talks to Willow on the phone to try and stay awake so that she can get the Thanksgiving shopping done in the early morning so that the stores are empty. An alarm clock wakes her at 2:30 am and she goes to the All-Nite-O-Mart where she finds her shopping companions to be the crazy and deranged. Including a woman walking an empty dog leash and speaking to it. With a shopping cart full of shopping, she leaves the store to be attacked by a vamp wearing Buffy's Halloween costume. Kidnapped and taken to the crypt by the vamp, Buffy is tied up while the vamp teases her about being Thanksgiving dinner. The vamp is Selke from the Spooky House on Halloween and wants revenge for her friends that are dust in a plastic beach pail. Buffy fights the vamp off with the contents of her shopping cart, getting the best of the vamp with her large turkey. Suddenly, the crypt is in flames and Buffy narrowly escapes only to happily enjoy that same turkey with her mom. Continuity *These events take place during Thanksgiving, therefore a month before the Christmas events of 1998 ("Amends", White Christmas). *Buffy and Giles discuss the escape of an injured vampire during Halloween, Selke, who surprises the Slayer robbing and wearing the costume from their previous encounter (Halloween). She also has collected her friends' ashes, slayed by Buffy in the same event. *Buffy and Joyce Summers have their Thanksgiving dinner together; in the next year, Buffy will dine with the Scooby Gang while Joyce is out of town ("Pangs"). Appearances Individuals *Cordelia Chase *Rupert Giles *Alexander Harris *Hart *Norris *Daniel Osbourne *Willow Rosenberg *Selke *Buffy Summers *Joyce Summers *Vezina Organizations and titles *Dingoes Ate My Baby *Scooby Gang *Slayer *Watcher Species *Human **Werewolf *Vampire Events *Halloween *Thanksgiving Locations *1630 Revello Drive *All-Nite-O-Mart *Cemetery *Sunnydale High School **Sunnydale High School library Weapons and objects *21DW407 *''Medieval Survivalist Magazine'' Death count *None. Behind the scenes Production *The photo cover features a promotional picture taken for ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' season 2, in montage by Dave Stewart. *Differently from other representations, at this point the comics had vampires also able to transform into green creatures with red eyes, pointy ears, a wide mouth, and long teeth. Although, this seems more like an artistic choice, not having direct consequence to the stories. Distribution *'' '' was the 44th best selling comic issue in its publishing month, with 46,125 sales in November 1998 at comic specialty stores."November 1998 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops". Comichron. Retrieved August 24, 2018. Collections *''The Remaining Sunlight'' *''Omnibus: Volume 3'' *''Classic 15: Cold Turkey/Dance With Me'' *''Buffy the Vampire Slayer Legacy Edition, Book 1'' Pop culture references *Buffy wakes up with a crop top with a "Neck" logo, in parody of the brand Nike. *Xander mentions the ice hockey team Los Angeles Kings. *Willow mentions past First Lady of the United States Betty Ford. *Cordelia mentions department store Kmart. *Giles mentions MTV channel. *Buffy mentions heavy metal band Motley Crüe. *Buffy buys a turkey of the frozen foods brand Sadia. *Selke wears Buffy's costume of the character Jason Voorhees. *Buffy mentions Sunnydale having only one Starbucks coffeehouse. International titles *'Russian:' Холодная индейка (Cold Turkey) Other *Although a full moon during the story, it actually had been only in the previous week of November 26 (Thanksgiving), 1998. Gallery Cover artwork BC-03-00b.jpg|Joe Bennett main cover S2c4.jpg|Original picture for photo cover International covers BC-03-RU.jpg|Cover in Russia Preview Buffy3p1.jpg Buffy3p2.jpg Buffy3p3.jpg References nl:Cold Turkey Category:Buffy comics Category:Dark Horse Classic